
Class 

Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



Tl)^ Qreat 3t. Loais (2\^clone, 



MAY 27th, 1896, vVj 



j\s sS^en Tl^roagl) a C^Lim^rci, 



By L. F. Hammer, Jr., 
I. 

Photographer, 
1534 SOUTH BROADWAY, ST. I,OUIS, MO. 



Copyright. 1896. 

By L. F. Hammer, Jr.. 

St. Loris. Mo. 



|(Q){iii\/eininr odIT ihe (gy(2toinieo 




«4y>imirai 



■^T^jj^S^^pN the afternoon of Wednesday, May 27, 1S96, tlie city of St. Louis, which had always made 
*!u'S>><:^305^5'cx H ji^g pioud boast that she enjoyed immunity from danger of cyclones or tornadoes, was visited 
by the most destructive storm in the history of the country, both in regard to the number of 
lives lost and the amount of property which was damaged. 

In less than an hour, over two hundred lives were crushed out, thousands were more or 
less injured, and more than fifty millions of dollars' worth of property was destroyed. 

The storm was predicted a year before bv Rev. Irl Ilicks, the local astronomer, and the 
United States Signal .Service sent out warnings several hours in atlvance of its ajjproach, but the people could 
not realize the extent of the awful danger that threatened them. 

At least three hours before the storm, the atmosphere became sultry and depressing. The wind came in 
tittul gusts, with periods of dead calm intervening ant! patches of fluffy clouds went scurrying across the 
horizon. These continued to pile up until the entire sky was filled with a mass of shell-shaped clouds which 
assumed a greenish-yellow hue at first, but grew blacker and more ominous looking, until suddenly from out 
of the northwest came a terrific hurricane, accompanied by unusually severe electrical disturbances, and a 
perfect deluge of water, which swept through the entire city causing destruction on every side. This lasted 
for about twenty minutes, when there was a lull of several minutes' duration; then about 5 o'clock there burst 
upon the city from the southwest an awful tornado, compared with which, the first storm was as a gentle 
zephyr. This lasted only a few minutes, but it swept through the southern portion of the city, creating sad 
havoc in its path, and dealing death and destruction on every hand. It was this second storm wliich caused the 
great loss of life and property. 



From comparatively narrow limits at the Poor House, the path of the storm gradually widened until hv 
the time the river was reached, it extended from the Eads Bridge nearly to Shenandoah Street. Throughout 
this entire distance, there were very few houses in the path of the tornado which did not sustain more or less 
damage, while hundreds were totally demolished. Great trees, which had withstood the storms of fifty years, 
were snapped like twigs, or uprooted, and nothing seemed able to withstand the awful fury of the tempest. 

In East St. Louis the devastation was, if possible, worse; that portion known as "the island," being 
entirely swept away. To add to the horror of the situation on that side of the river, after the storm the tlistrict 
was s\veptby fire, which completed the work of destruction. 

The scenes after the storm were so heart-rending that they will not be effaced from memory in a life-time. 
Agonized women ran crying through the streets in search of their husliands. brothers or children. 

The thirteen buildings of the new plant of the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, which were in course 
of erection, having a frontage of 2,400 feet on Park Avenue and a like frontage on Folsom Avenue, and 
extending from Lawrence Street to Tower Grove Avenue, were many of them badly wrecked and a number of 
workmen and girls were buried in the ruins. 

Of the 300 solidly built and comparatively new houses on Compton Heights, costing from $5,000 to 
$25,000 each, not one escaped serious damage, and in most of them the furniture, carpets and clothing of the 
occupants were ruined. 

In the territory between .Jefferson and Oregon Avenues, from Lafayette Avenue to Shenandoah Street, 
there are fully 300 houses which were partially or totally demolished, and the most of these residences cost 
from $3,000 to $6,000. 

The immense power-house of the Scullin street-car system, one of the finest plants of its kind in the world, 
was completely wrecked and left a heap of ruins. The elegant churches in that neighborhood were demolished, 
and the buildings at the .South Side Race Track were completely blown away. 

Around Nicholson Place and Benton Place, the palatial residences were all unroofed and partially 
wrecked, and their contents drenched with muddy water. All around the aristocratic residence district in the 
vicinity of Lafayette and Missouri Avenues the destruction was complete, and the scene of havoc is simply 
beyond description. Every house in this district suffered severely, and the park, which had the name of being 
one of the most beautiful small parks in the country, was completely devastated. Statues were overturned, and 



only six of the beautiful trees were left standing, these beiti<:; shorn of many of their limbs and left sadlv 
dilapidated. 

From this on east to Ninth Street the district is thickly populated by the middle class of people, and barely 
a house escaped being partially or totally demolished. The power house of the Peoples' Railway, which was 
as solid as brick and stone could make it, was a complete wreck. 

The City Hospital was almost completely ilemolished, and temporary quaiters had to be provided for the 
patients. That the death list did not run up into the thousands is simply miraculous. Manufactin-ing estab- 
lishments, employing hundreds of hands, were razed to the ground, and vet the total death list in St. Louis 
was only about two hundred, while in East St. Louis it will foot up only a little over one hundred. 

From Ninth Street to Broadway the territory is densely populated by the poorer classes of people, and 
here the ruin was simply awful. From the ruins of one tenement house on .Seventh antl Rutger Streets 
twentv-one bodies were taken out, and on the opposite corner three lioilies were found. 

A number of people were burled beneath the ruins of Soulard Market, and the old Saxony School, in 
falling, crushed the cottage of the janitor which adjoined it, killing all of the occupants, consisting of the janitor, 
his sister, and her two children. The large furniture store of the William Ottenad Furniture Company was 
reduced to a pile of ruins, and the proprietor, his two sons, the bookkeeper, driver, and a number of others 
were buried in the ruins. The two little boys were found alive and unhurt in ice boxes beneath the ruins 
where they had crawled for safety'. The bookkeeper was taken out with a broken arm, but the balance were 
dead. All along South Broadway, from Spruce Street south, the stores were either partially or wholly 
destroyed, the furniture stores being markeil as the especial olijects for the fury of the storm, as every furniture 
store on the street, from Mueller Bros, to Thuner's warehouse, was wrecked. 

From Broadway to the river through the old historical part of .St. Louis the storm wrought sad havoc, and 
from Broadway and Spruce Street diagonally across to the Eads Bridge, the district is a mass of ruins. At 
the plant of the St. Louis Wooden Gutter Co. and Aluminum Bicycle works, after the storm had completed 
its deadly work, the ruins were swept by fire, which added to the work of destruction. 

The entire Levee district from the Eads Bridge to Arsenal Island is a scene of wreck and ruin. Along 
the river the damage was tremendous, numbers of steamboats, tugs and barges were wrecked and sunk, but 
the loss of life was remarkably small. Of the entire fleet of the Wiggins Ferry Company, but one boat was fit 

5 



for use after the storm. The g;reat Eads Bridge, which is considered one of the wonders of the world, was 
badly damaged, and the eastern approach totally wrecked. A passenger train was caught in the ruins, and 
an electric car blown from the structure. 

In East St. Louis the damage is simply appalling. The railroad yards were all wrecked, cars were tossed 
here and there, and locomotives were hurled down embankments, and the entire western portion of the city 
was destroyed. The water works were demolished, and fire soon added terror to the scene. What the wind 
had left the greedy flames soon licked up, and left what had been a flourishing city, a charred and blackened 
mass of ruins. The Mayor appealed to St. Louis for assistance, which was quickly sent. Soon after the 
storm a number of ghoulish vandals were discovered robbing the bodies of the dead, and the militia had to be 
called out to protect the wrecked property. 

As soon as the disaster became known to the outside world, proffers of assistance came pouring in from 
all over the civilized world, but Mayor Walbridge quickly responded, that while East St. Louis needed assist- 
ance, St. Louis would care for her own. In spite of this, however, liberal donations kept pouring in. The 
Merchants' Exchange held a meeting the next day. and organized a relief committee. A subscription list was 
started, and $12 000 was raised from those present in a few minutes, and this was swelled by Saturday to 
$100,000. The City Council appropriated a like sum, and the work of relieving the distress began. 

The South Broadway Merchants' Association, although its members were all heavy sufferers, came nobly 
to the front and organized a relief committee, opened headquarters and commenced at once to provide food 
and shelter for the homeless and starving. South Broadway was wrecked, liut will rise phoenix-like from the 
ruins to be greater than ever, and become what it should be — the greatest business street in St. Louis. 

B\- daybreak Thursday morning we had a corps of experienced artists on the scene, taking views of the 
points of greatest destruction, and in less than four days this work was printed and put on the market. 

L. F. HAMMER. Jr., 
Photografhcr, 

1534 South Broadway. 




EAST AIM'KdACH TO EADS KKIL)i;E. 




LAKAVtiit I'AKK — LUOKING EAS 1 I'KOM jMlSbUl^Kl AVENUE. 




LAFAYETTE PARK, CORNER OF LAFAYETTE AND MISSISSIPPI AVENUES — LOOKING WEST. 




WASHINGTON STATUE, LAKAYETTE I'ARK. 




BENTON STATUE, LAFAYliTiE PARK. 
























/• 




-O -«*" 'in- 







\VA\EkI.V PLACE liOULEVARD, OFFOSl 1 E LAEAVKTTE I'AKK. 



^ • /- 




MISSISSIPPI AVENVE— LOOKING NORTH. 




MISSISSIPPI AVENUE, EAST SIDE LAFAYETTE PARK. 




WEST SIDE MlbSUUKI AVENUE, LAFAYETTE I'ARK, SHOWING PARK I'KESliVTERlAN CHURCH. 




VNIO.N CLV'B, LAFAYETTE AND JEIT-EKSUN AVENUES, 




LAFAYETTE AVENUE, OPPOSITE LAFAYETTE PARK. 




LAIAVLI II', A\L.\LL — LouKlNG KAb F KKuM J ia-I'tksu.\ A\"i;M L. 




MT. CALVAKV PROTESTANT El'ISCOPAL CHVKCH, LAFAYETTE AM. J LI- 1- LK.-.u;s AVLML^. 




LAFAYETTE AVENUE BAPTIST CHUKCH. 




KKNNKTT PLACE — LOOKING WEST TO LAFAYKITE PARK. 




\\ HI I I kMI-)kt I'LACE — LOUKl.NIi h\sl. 




KESIDENCE OF AUG. AHRENS, WHITTEMORE PLACE. 









I. i 

I'll ! i 



«C 



^a- i ' h.—. /^f , 




Al.l;h J-N PLACE — I.Oi.iKlN' 




iOH^ 



RESIDENCE DR. HAUCK, WHITTEMORE PLACE AND JEFFERSON AVENUE. 




RESIDENCE DR. STARKLOFK, COM HTON HEIGHTS. 




i-^ttu-t'^i 




, lAll. AND JEFFKKSON AVliM'LS. 








• . IE fin m ~^ 

■f Iff »r "*|^ti . 




I'EOl'LES' R. K. I'OWEk HOUbE, I'AKK AVEM't A.NEl I^ill MKEEl. 




NO. 7 ENGINE HOUSE, I'AKK AVENUE AND iStH STREET. 



ir.4*- 



I 










rS:Z. 



CALIHUKMA AVEM t AM) ACCUMAC SIKEKL, WHERE A .M.\.\, UUMA.N AM) CHILD WERE KILLED. 




COKNER SOL'TH BROADWAY AND BAKRY bTKEETS. 




.M 



CORNER SOl'TH BROADWAY AND CARROLL — SOUTH BROADWAY MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION HALL. 




SOUTH BROADWAY — LOOKING SOUTH FROM CONVENT. 




TLOEHN BUlI.l'IN'-., li Ki.iAl i\\ A V AND MILLER, 




BROADWAY, LOOKING SOUTH FROM BAKKV. 




COK.NEK Ui MILLEK AND BKOADWAV — LOOKING SOUTH. 




OriENAD BUILDING, CORNER SOUI.ARU AND SOUTH BROADWAY, WHERE A NUMBER OF PEOl'I.E WERE KILLED. 




BAKRV AND BROADWAY — LOOKING VVEST-^PESTALOZZl SCHOOL HOUS'E. 




MACHENHEIMER BUILDING. CORNER 7TH AND RUTGER, WHERE 27 PEOPLE WERE KILLED. 




7TH AND RITCER, WHERE 35 PERSONS WEKE KILLED. 




SOUTHWEST CORNER 7TH AND KUTGER. 




7TH AND PARK AVENUE. 




9TH AND I'AKK AVENUE — 6111 STREET CAK LINE — J PEOPLE KILLED. 




ST. PETEK AND PAUL CHL'KCH, 7TH AND ALLEN AVENUE. 




al. I'AbL'i CHURCH, 9TH AMJ l.AlAVLUt. A\ LM 1.. 




ST. PAUL AND TKI.MTY CHURCH, c/lH AND LAKAYETTE AVENUE, WHERE JANITOR AND FAMILY WERE KILLED. 




GERMAN MEMORIAL M. E. CHURCH, JEFFERSON AVENUE AN13 ACCOMAC STREET. 




ST. JOHN OF NEPOMUK, NORTHWEST CORNER UTH AND SOULARD, 




ST. JOHN OF NEI'OMUK, NORTHWEST CORNER IITH AND SOULAKD — SCHOOL HOUSE. 




UNION DKIMT K. K. POWER HOUSE, WHERE A NLMBEK OF I'EOI'LE WERE KILLED. 




CITY UOSl'lTAL, 1 iil^M 1: LiOLMAN AND CAKKOLL STKliETS. 




CORNER 4TH AND CHOUTEAU AVENUE. 




CD 



ANNUNCIATION CHURCH, 6tH AND LA SALLE STREET, WHERE REV. J. J. HEAD WAS INJURED. 




SCHCIENTHALEK MANUFACTURINC CO. , I4 TH ANlJ L HUl I hAl' A\ENl'E. 




I:K')\VN lillJALLn III.. iSTH ANli CHOI' 1 KAl' AXKMK. 




LIGGETT S; MYERS TOBACCO CO. 




LIGOET'I' i: MYERS TOBACgO CO. — INTERIOR Of liUlLDlNG. 




EAST ST. LOUIS TRANSFKR Cu. s VAKD. 




EAST ST. LOUIS ELECTRIC CAR BLUW.N KKOM IHE EADS BRIDGE. 




EAST ST. LOUIS rOWEK HOUSE. 




uoih;las school, east st. louis. 




UKtCKiiL) blEAMEK ON Llih. MlbblbSll'l'l . 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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014 572 309 7 « 




